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Whether you are about to have your first baby or your third, those early days (that can stretch into weeks and months!) of parenting are a whirlwind of emotions, sleepless nights and questions (a lot of questions). And while we all have come to expect unconditional love to happen and exhaustion to reign supreme, what can take many a new parent by surprise is the constant question – “Am I doing this right”.

While no one has the magic bullet to calm your fears of making the “wrong” decision, there are resources available that will help guide you through. One such book I highly recommend is Baby Care Basics by Dr. Jeremy Friedman and Dr. Natasha Saunders. Working full time at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto has given these two doctors the background and knowledge to write a comprehensive but easy to read (and understand!) book that covers topics new moms needs to know; from breast- and formula-feeding (with no judgement with which you choose), introducing solid food, treating your baby’s illnesses to sleep habits, playing with your baby and much more. Seriously, where was this book after I had my first!!!!

Why is this book important?

Because, we all know despite all the planning in the world (and all the advice people will put upon you), nothing can quite prepare you for the big step from pregnancy to parenting.

Taking care of your baby is one of life’s biggest and most important challenges (challenge being the operative word here)

There is so much conflicting information available on the Internet, how can one be sure whom to trust?

​Containing a wealth of reliable information that will help parents make the right choices for their baby, The Baby Care Basics Book answers the questions every new parent has on a daily basis, providing practical, expert advice on everything you need to know from pregnancy through your baby’s first year.

GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

Thank you to our wonderful friends, they are giving us 1 book to give away to 1 of our lucky readers! The giveaway is open to both Canadian and US residents ! Here is how to enter:

It is no secret that with pregnancy comes a new wardrobe (or you can borrow all your husbands clothes) and I was ok with it seeing as I was planning on having another kid therefore getting a lot of use out of it, but the one thing I refused to buy was a winter jacket. Do you know how expensive those things can be? Jeez you would think you were buying a Canada Goose or something for that price!

Lucky for me, my first time around I was only a few months pregnant during the winter season so I was able to get through with my regular jacket, but the second time around is when I ran into the problem of needing a winter coat and refusing to purchase a maternity winter coat coupled with my stubborn personality, I wore my regular jacket through winter and buttoned up the top portion and let my belly hang out (yup that’s right, I got to the point that I didn’t give a BLEEP who stared).

It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I noticed that my pregnant girlfriend was wearing her regular jacket, but had some sort of insert on it. I took a closer look at it and I couldn’t believe what a brilliant invention this was. In fact, I instantly looked up the company and wrote them just to tell them how wonderful their product was and was sad this product wasn’t around when I was pregnant. She told me that she gets stopped on the street all the time asking what the insert is … that good! Honestly, everyone who is pregnant during the winter months should have MakeMyBellyFit. My girlfriend loves hers, I love the idea of it so I wanted to write about it and share with the world (well those who read my blog) – it would be selfish of me if I didn’t!

What I love about MakeMyBellyFit– You don’t need to spend $600 on a new jacket
– It is made in Canada
– It zips right into your regular jacket easily (some with an adapter and some without)
– Good quality zippers and soft shell material
– It has a fleece liner you can add on for extra warmth
– To make sure you are purchasing the right adapter, their website has a form to fill out where they will advise you of which one will work for your jacket
– Great for post baby as well, put it around your baby in their carrier to keep them extra warm
– Comes in a bunch of colours to match your coat
– Great (reasonable) price point
– Ships to the US

GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!Thanks to our extremely generous friends at MakeMyBellyFit, they are giving away one BellyFit Insert, Warmth Layer and Zipper Adapter to 1 lucky winner. This contest is open to Canadian and US residents. Here’s how to enter:

It’s holiday time which means that it’s THYME (haha I’m so cheesy) to start looking for your New Years and office holiday party outfits. It is hard enough to find a nice outfit not being pregnant never mind being pregnant – YIKES!!! If your anything like me, I would first go through my entire non-pregnancy wardrobe trying everything on hoping something will fit and then after seeing my belly hang out or not being able to do up the back of the dress, I give up (in tears might I add) because nothing fits and well because I had high hopes!!!!

Thyme Maternity has their new, very stylish holiday collection in and it is fabulous!!! I can guarantee you will find an outfit (or 3 or 4) for all these occasions and then some. They have everything from cute dresses to skinnies that you can pair with a nice shirt or blouse. Here is a peak at some great looks that you will find in store

I have always loved Thyme Maternity for its basics (their tanks are my fave) and this holiday lineup just took it to a whole new level!!!!

Thanks to our VERY generous friends at Thyme Maternity, they are giving one of my lucky readers a $200 gift certificate to use at any of their stores (Canadian residents only). Here’s how to enter:

Babies “R” Us is hosting baby showers at the Baby Time Show .. LUCKY moms-2-be!!!!

On Friday, November 8, Babies“R”Us is treating 400 soon-to-be and new moms to a luxurious baby shower complete with massages, crave food stations and giveaways.”R” Big Baby Showers will run every hour, starting at 11:00 a.m. and concluding at3:45 p.m. Each shower will be attended by 100 new moms and pregnant women with their baby bumps! New and expectant mothers can also check out the must-have gear for travelling with baby, top items for their baby registries, cool accessories for their nurseries, and take part in cool baby shower games such as a Biggest Bump contest.

Pregnancy is not easy (well maybe it is for you), however a lot of changes are happening and here are a bunch of items that have saved me through the 9 long months.

The Pregnancy Pillow aka my boyfriend:

Look how happy she looks!!

If you dont have one of these you must invest or borrow from a friend. I am a back sleeper and was told that is a big no no during pregnancy so I bought this pillow to help and well lets just say I missed it when I gave it up once I had my first born (I promise you my husband did NOT miss it). The moment I found out I was pregnant with baby #2, that pillow immediately came out of storage and I am wondering how I am going to give it up again. I bought the Snoogle but there are tons of brands out there to choose from. One thing to note: this pillow is NOT small!!!

Water Bottle:

If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to purchase one of those water bottles that are leak proof (trust me on that one) and you can fill up and throw into your purse. I am always thirsty and when I need water, I need it now. Lucky for me, I work in the promo industry so I have an endless supply of water bottles, but go to any pharmacy or supermarket as they have tons of options.

The Long White Layering Tank:

For those who don’t know me … that is NOT me! I wish I looked that good during pregnancy!

The question is how many of these white long layering tanks do I actually have in my maternity wardrobe? Easily 6-7 and I could probably buy more. These are not just for summer time, they are amazing for layering since either your boobs have gotten too big and your regular scoop neck shirt just turned into the lowest cleavage shirt or your belly is hanging out the bottom of your shirt. I even thought it helped make those “trouble” areas a little less “trouble” 🙂

A Good Place to Shop:

You can try to wear your pre-pregnancy clothes for as long as possible, but I promise you it won’t last long until you start feeling that everything is so tight and you just want to get it off (or peel it off depending on how far along in your pregnancy you are), or your belly is actually hanging out the bottom (hey if that’s your cup of tea, go for it) at which point you decide “ok now it’s time I buy some maternity clothes” but where do you go? Well pick out your favorite maternity shop and treat yourself to some cute clothes. My pick (both pregnancies) was/is a little boutique shop called Kick Maternity that is located mid-town Toronto. Not only do they have a great selection of clothes, they carry brand names, non-brand names and their staff are SUPER helpful and most importantly they are honest and know their stuff.

Belly Bands:

Ok so your jeans are getting a little tighter now and its hard to get them done up – what do you do?? You don’t have a bump so no need to get maternity jeans yet, but you can’t sit in those tight jeans that leave the button mark embedded into your skin … get a belly band!!! These bands have the appearance of wearing a tank top but infact you leave your jean button open and the band keeps your pants from falling down (smart invention) – even good for post pregnancy. I got mine at Kick Maternity

The Wedge:

As if my pregnancy pillow/”boyfriend” wasn’t enough, I added in the pregnancy wedge pillow in the last few months of my pregnancy. Near the end, I tend to use the pregnancy pillow as support for my back leaving an open space for that poor heavy belly of mine and decided to try this out and for $15 it was well worth it! Wedge it right under your belly when lying down and it just lifts an enormous weight off. I got this at Toys R Us

Well there you have it … my pregnancy survival guide. If there are any products that have helped you during your pregnancy, please share by commenting below.

My last pregnancy I felt .. well … DUMB and this pregnancy, honestly no words can describe this feeling – could it be left over from my last pregnancy or is it possible it’s accumulating 😉

I find myself saying over and over to friends, family and even clients “can I blame it on my baby brain” and it’s no joke .. IT’S REAL!!!

Recently I got a call from a girlfriend who I shared my frustrations with and she told me that there were articles about baby brain/pregnancy brain being an actual problem for pregnant women. She sent it to me and of course I had to send it to everyone who thought I was using it as an excuse and well here is it is for you to send around as well www.todaysparent.com/pregnancy-brain. I know there is no actual science behind it, but at least there is some sort of explanation.

Here are some of my frustrating baby brain moments …

– I put my phone in my purse and then literally .. LITERALLY 30 seconds later I am scouring my desk, pockets, purse trying to find my lost phone and am basically on the verge of tears because I can’t find it and after minutes of freaking out and dumping out the entire contents of my purse onto the floor, there it was in the corner of my purse that I swear I checked three times and it just magically appeared.

– I think of something that I have to tell a friend and I go to take out my phone (after searching for it in every pocket possible) and then I actually forget who I was going to write or what it was I had to tell them … what is going on??!!!

– The most annoying thing I find is when I think of bunch of things I need .. NO … MUST do and within actual seconds … poof … it’s gone, I can’t remember what it was I had to do!!!! UGGHHHH I could honestly pull my hair out (well that happens after the baby comes)

This is only a small portion of the craziness that goes on within my head daily and I know it is only short lived, but honestly …

Lucky for me, I have learned a small and easy trick to help me remember .. it’s called WRITING IT DOWN!!!! Did you know, there are these amazing devices that I like to call iPhone’s/Smartphones where you can make notes on an app … brilliant right … I knew there was a reason they call them smartphones! 😉

If you have any funny or frustrating baby/pregnancy brain moments, do share
T.
xo

As you can clearly can tell by now, I thoroughly enjoy finding the best kiddie products out there, as well as new and amazing businesses as I take pride in helping other parents, so naturally when I was introduced to this new idea I fell inlove with it and had to share!

As a new parent or an expectant parent, you have NO CLUE what to expect and what each baby stage brings, not to mention with the amount of baby products on the market (6 brands of one type of product – yikes) it can be sooooo overwhelming and Mommiesfirst helps with that by taking some of the guess work out of it. Like a magazine subscription, you select a membership plan of 3 months, 6 months or 12 months (or better yet you can gift it) shipping is free and monthly you will get a box in the mail with 4-5 great brand must-have products that will help you with all those tough stages, baby or no baby. These boxes are 100% tailored to you and your baby by filling out some information when choosing your membership.

Lucky for me, a while back I was asked to be part of the Mommiesfirst council to help test out products to make sure they are good enough for all those getting the care packages and I excitedly accepted and have enjoyed very much being part of this council. I can promise you up and down that only products that get raving reviews from the council members go in the packages and I know that because I had a pretty bad experience with one of the products to which I expressed my dissatisfaction and it was not included in the box. That shows me that they really do care and that is enough for me to stand behind this company (not to mention the founder, Lorena, is such a wonderful caring mom and business owner who just “gets it”).

Think about it as getting a fun present every month since you don’t know what is coming – YES PLEASE!